Partisan: Proving Documents Haven't Changed, Privately
A private way to show that files are complete and unchanged, without anyone seeing their contents.
Charles Pycraft · 10 October 2026
Documents change hands all the time. Books and records pass from an administrator to a buyer. Evidence moves between solicitors, forensic accountants and counsel. Files recovered in one jurisdiction end up being relied on in another. At each step, someone is trusting that what arrived is exactly what was sent.
Usually that trust is never tested. But when it is, in a dispute, a claim or a challenge to the evidence, the question becomes awkward very quickly. Can you show that this file is complete? Can you show it hasn't been edited since it left the last pair of hands? And can you do that without handing the contents to yet another party?
That last point matters. Much of the material in insolvency, fraud and investigation work is confidential, privileged or simply sensitive. The usual ways of demonstrating that nothing has changed tend to involve more people looking at the documents, not fewer.
This is the problem Oliver Bond and I set out to address with Partisan.
What Partisan does
Partisan is software that helps a law firm or investigative team present solid evidence of where data and soft-copy documents came from, and that they haven't been changed.
It works by recording a unique fingerprint of each file. Later, anyone can check a file against that fingerprint. If it matches, the file is complete and unchanged. If it doesn't, you can see that it has been altered.
Partisan never needs to see the documents themselves and keeps no copies. The contents stay with you. What Partisan holds is the record that lets you prove, at a later date, that the files are what you say they are.
The cryptographic fingerprints are anchored in an immutable encrypted register secured within the Partisan Core, creating a permanent, tamper-evident record for future verification while the documents themselves remain strictly private and unseen on your premises.
Who it's for
Partisan is aimed at people whose work depends on records being trusted after they've moved between hands, with a focus on the UK and offshore. That includes:
• insolvency practitioners, including administrators and liquidators handing over books and records;
• forensic accounting and investigation teams;
• asset-recovery and fraud lawyers;
• disclosure and discovery teams;
• regulated firms whose client files pass to a buyer;
• anyone archiving records before they are destroyed.
Where it helps
A few illustrative situations, to give a sense of how it might be used:
When a failed firm's book transfers. When a failed firm's client and advice files pass to a buyer, both sides have an interest in being able to show that the files arrived complete and unaltered. A fingerprint recorded at handover gives them a way to do that later, without the files being opened for the purpose.
When records are recovered across jurisdictions. Electronic records gathered in one place are often relied on somewhere else, sometimes months or years later. Keeping a verifiable record from the point of recovery means you can show they haven't changed along the way.
Before records are destroyed. At the end of a liquidation, records may be destroyed. Fingerprinting them first leaves a record of what existed, which can be useful if questions arise afterwards.
As financial records pass between advisers. Accounts, ledgers and supporting files often move between accountants, lawyers and other advisers. Partisan offers a straightforward way to check that each party is working from the same, unaltered material.
None of these are descriptions of particular cases. They are the kinds of situations Partisan was built for.
How we work with you
We know that firms handling sensitive material are rightly cautious about new tools, so we keep the first steps small and low-risk:
1. A 15-minute call. You tell us about the kind of records you handle and where the pressure points are. We tell you plainly whether we think Partisan is relevant.
2. A short demonstration on sample files. We show you how it works using non-confidential sample files, so nothing of yours is involved.
3. A sample test on your own non-sensitive files. If it still looks useful, we run a short test on a non-sensitive set of your own files, so you can see it working with material you recognise.
Only after that would we talk about any wider engagement. Oliver leads the technical side throughout.
Who is behind it
Partisan was developed by Oliver Bond and me. My background is in journalism, where questions about the provenance and reliability of documents come up constantly. Oliver Bond previously held SC clearance while working for the National Crime Agency.
Getting in touch
If you deal with records that pass between hands, and you'd like a better answer to the question "how do you know this hasn't changed?", I'd be glad to hear from you. A 15-minute call is the easiest place to start, and there is no obligation beyond that.Partisan records a unique fingerprint of each file, so you can later prove documents are complete and unchanged, without anyone seeing the contents.
Charles Pycraft
+44 (0)7967 224 385
https://www.charlespycraft.co.uk
https://partisangateway.com